Vicia villosa B4 lectin inhibits nucleotide pyrophosphatase activity toward UDP-GalNAc specifically.

Plant seed lectins play a defense role against plant-eating animals. Here, GalNAc-specific Vicia villosa B4 lectin was found to inhibit hydrolysis of UDP-GalNAc by animal nucleotide pyrophosphatases, which are suggested to regulate local levels of nucleotide sugars in cells. Inhibition was marked at low concentrations of UDP-GalNAc, and was reversed largely by the addition of GalNAc to the reaction mixture. In contrast, lectin inhibited enzymatic hydrolysis of other nucleotide sugars, such as UDP-Gal and UDP-GlcNAc, only to a small extent, and GalNAc did not affect such an inhibition. The binding constant of the lectin for UDP-GalNAc was as high as 2.8 x 10(5) M-1 at 4 degrees C, whereas that for GalNAcalpha-1-phosphate was 1.3 x 10(5) M-1. These findings indicate that lectin inhibition of pyrophosphatase activity toward low concentrations of UDP-GalNAc arises mainly from competition between lectin and enzyme molecules for UDP-GalNAc. This type of inhibition was also observed to a lesser extent with GalNAc-specific Wistaria floribunda lectin, but not apparently with GalNAc-specific soybean or Dolichos biflorus lectin. Thus, V. villosa B4 lectin shows unique binding specificity for UDP-GalNAc and has the capacity to modulate UDP-GalNAc metabolism in animal cells.

Identification of a soluble UDP-Gal: Gal (beta 1-4)Glc (or GlcNAc) (alpha 1-3) galactosyltransferase of bovine colostrum.

A soluble UDP-Gal: Gal (alpha 1-3) galactosyltransferase was first detected in bovine colostrum and this enzyme activity was simply assayed by using rho-nitrophenyl-beta-lactoside (Gal(beta 1-4)Glc-C6H5NO2, rho NP-lactoside) as an acceptor. Treating the radioactive product with alpha- or beta-galactosidase, the radioactivity (greater than 95%) was released by only alpha-galactosidase and was identified as [3H]galactose. This shows that galactosyl residue was alpha-linked to rho-nitrophenyl-beta-lactoside. Methylation, hydrolysis, thin layer chromatography and fluorography of the reaction product (Gal(alpha 1-)-[3H]Gal(beta 1-4)Glc-rho NP) yielded 2,4,6-tri-O-methyl[3H]galactose, indicating that galactosyl residue had been transferred to the carbon-3 position of the terminal nonreducing beta-galactosyl residue in rho-nitrophenyl-beta-lactoside. These results confirmed that the structure of the reaction product was Gal(alpha 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)Glc-rho NP. The enzyme requires Mn2+ for its activity, and shows pH optimum from 6.5 to 7.5. rho-Nitrophenyl-beta-lactoside and asialo alpha 1-acid glycoprotein were more effective as an acceptor than N-acetyllactosamine. The bovine colostrum (alpha 1-3) galactosyltransferase could not convert human O red cells into B active cells, indicating that this enzyme preparation did not contain the activity to synthesize human blood group B erythrocytes.

The relationship between the (beta 1-3) N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase and the presence of oligosaccharides containing lacto-N-triose II structure in bovine and human milk.

We measured UDP-GlcNAc:Gal (beta 1-4) Glc (or GlcNAc) (beta 1-3) N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase activities in bovine (Holstein and Jersey cow) and human colostrums, and found in human colostrums sufficient activity to study the enzyme properties while not in bovine colostrums. The properties (requirements, pH optimum, acceptor specificity and Km values for lactose and N-acetyllactosamine) of the enzyme from human colostrum were very similar to those from human serum and urine. The reaction product was hydrolyzed by beta-N-acetylhexosaminidase, indicating that the N-acetylglucosaminyl residue was beta-linked to lactose. Methylation and hydrolysis of the reaction product from lactose [3H] labeled at the terminal galactose yielded 2, 4, 6-tri-O-methyl [3H] galactose. Thus the structure of the product was demonstrated to be GlcNAc (beta 1-3) Gal (beta 1-4) Glc (lacto-N-triose II). On the other hand, bovine sera contained N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase catalyzing the transfer of N-acetylglucosamine from UDP-GlcNAc to lactose. The enzyme activities were approximately 1/6-1/4 of that contained in human serum. The presence of (beta 1-3) N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase in human colostrum and its absence in bovine colostrums, apparently corresponds with the presence and absence of oligosaccharides containing lacto-N-triose II structure in colostrum.